Category — Newton Centre

The following message was sent out by Louis D’Arienzo, one of the founders of the Garden City Preservation Society, an all-volunteer effort to beautify the area around the Newton Centre T Station.

Over the past year, with the help of local donors and Ward 6 Alderman-at-large Vicki Danberg, the group’s volunteers have added plantings and street furnishings to the area. [Read more →]

Inna’s Kitchen 19 Pelham Street Newton Centre (617) 244-5345 blog.innaskitchen.com

Inna Khitrik of Auburndale (pictured with son Alex) opened Inna’s Kitchen just a few weeks ago in May 2011. Inna’s Kitchen is a deli, café, and bakery offering Jewish cuisine from around the world. Specialties include falafel, knishes, borscht, corned beef, and many gluten-free, dairy-free, and vegetarian options. They make everything we can from scratch using quality ingredients, including curing their own meat for corned beef and pastrami. A primary focus is making prepared food that is easy to take home and keep in the refrigerator or freezer, especially soups.
[Read more →]

Two rent-by-the-hour cars are now available in the “triangle” parking lot on Langley Road. Zipcar members may reserve the Toyota Prius ($7.50/hour) or the Nissan Altima Hybrid ($11.50/hour).

The spaces are leased to Zipcar, the Cambridge-based car-sharing company. If this one-year trial program proves successful, the program may be expanded to other village centers in Newton.

To date, the city has three Zipcar locations: Newton Center and the MBTA stops at Woodland and Riverside. Zipcar locations in neighboring towns include Brookline (20 locations), Watertown (4), and Waltham (1). Zipcars are not yet available in Wellesley, Needham, or Dedham.

Tony Moreira, who teaches technology courses at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, has posted an article about a series of items he’s hidden around Newton as part of a “geocaching” project, a scavenger hunt that require the use of GPS technology.

He’s hidden caches in 13 different village locations — even in Thompsonville. (Given today’s forecast, I’m hoping some are located near ice cream vendors.)

Moreira writes:

Childhood memories were the inspiration for the hides, and while looking for each cache, be sure to take in the local sights, shops, and check the cache’s listing at the geocaching.com website for interesting historic information about each location.

The Indian restaurant at 71 Union Street appears to be on the market. This writer is one person who hopes they find a great new owner to join the Newton Center community.

Would hate to see that cuisine disappear from the village center. What is the next closest place to get saag paneer and naan — Moody Street in Waltham or Washington Square in Brookline?

Zoots will be moving a block east down Beacon Street into the space Motophoto vacated in January, according to Lynne Cohen-Friedman at Keypoint Partners. A Capital One Bank branch may be moving into the space that will be vacated by Zoots, she emailed.

With that and Century Bank opening its new branch on Langley Road this summer, Newton Center appears poised to win this year’s coveted “most banks in village” competition.

Big Sky's space on Union Street is available.

Last month, Big Sky Bakery & Cafe closed its Newton Center store and moved to Watertown, opening at 142 Main Street, near the Watertown Public Library. The space next door at 103 Union Street, which formerly housed the women’s fashion store Classic Trends, is also vacant.

Downstairs from the Classic Trends space, a sign in the window announces a new handbags and accessories store called Sarian as “coming soon.”